Andrew Bates, Telegraph-Journal, Local Journalism Initiative
The mother of a 24-year-old Newfoundland and Labrador man who died in hospital after falling from a ladder while working for a Cooke, Inc. subsidiary said the injury that led to his death “never needed to happen.”
Kelly Cove Salmon was ordered to pay $6,000 to a CCNB training program last Thursday after pleading guilty to a charge of failing to provide a safe means of access and egress under the Occupational Health and Safety Act relating to the 2022 death of Zachary Dobbin, 24, of St. Joseph’s, St. Mary’s Bay, N.L.
Court heard that Dobbin had been injured while falling from a ladder at the Port of Bayside, 12 kilometres northwest of Saint Andrews, and later died in hospital of what his family called a complication of surgery.
The company, a subsidiary of Saint John-based Cooke, Inc. which harvests farmed salmon, was charged with two OHSA offences: failing to provide access and egress and failing to take precautions to ensure Dobbin’s health and safety June 20, 2022. The company was due to face a three-day trial this week but instead pleaded guilty to the access charge, according to an agreed statement of facts read in court by Crown prosecutor Wes McIntosh. The second charge was withdrawn at sentencing.
Dobbin’s mother, Joanie Dobbin, told Brunswick News she was “disappointed” because her family had made travel plans to testify before the plea deal was reached, and said while she understood why the second charge was dropped, the circumstances of her son’s death were “unnecessary.”
“This never needed to happen,” she said by phone Friday.
Zach Dobbin had been hired May 23, 2022, by Kelly Cove, which has about 554 employees, according to the statement. Dobbin had been assigned June 14 to a boat called the Sadie Jane, where he worked as a deckhand and ship’s cook, McIntosh told court, reading from the statement.
The Sadie Jane had been docked at the wharf in Bayside, which features ladders that are “regularly used” to get up and down from boats, the statement said.
That day, Dobbin had been scheduled to be picked up by a driver at 11:30 a.m. for a flight back to St. John’s later that day, McIntosh said.
“Tidal fluctuation in the Bay of Fundy … can be significant. The height at the tide at the time and the date that Mr. Dobbin was preparing to disembark Sadie Jane made the climb unusually challenging,” said McIntosh.
The boat’s captain had asked Dobbin “if he felt comfortable climbing the wharf ladder,” which he said he was, McIntosh said. Dobbin’s luggage was hoisted to the wharf by a crane and he started climbing at about 11:35 a.m.
“When Mr. Dobbin was approximately three rungs from the top of the ladder … he lost his footing and fell back onto the deck of the Sadie Jane, causing the laceration and fracture of his right leg, broken leg and fractured pelvis,” McIntosh said, adding that both Crown and defence lawyers had estimated the distance as 15 feet (4.5 metres).
The crew provided first aid and Dobbin was taken to hospital in Saint John, with Kelly Cove paying for flights and accommodation for his family during treatment, McIntosh said. Dobbin was later moved to a hospital in Newfoundland and Labrador, where McIntosh said he died Aug. 1, 2022, due to “reasons unrelated to the incident,” which he later clarified was an allergic reaction to medication.
The Sadie Jane now docks at a floating dock in nearby Reserve Cove “whenever possible,” McIntosh said, saying the company has brought in more robust “fall arrest” requirements for use of wharf ladders, more training and upgraded first aid kits.
Judge W. Andrew LeMesurier asked if Dobbin had started “only a week prior,” and McIntosh said he was a “new employee for all intents and purposes.” When the judge asked about his training, McIntosh said he was trained on both boats, saying they tried him “at several different positions” before he became a cook.
The suggested sentence was a $6,000 donation in lieu of a fine to CCNB’s L’École des Pêches du Nouveau-Brunswick in Caraquet for the purchase of equipment for training exercises regarding safety on boats.
There was no requirement for a victim impact statement, McIntosh said, but added that the family was “quite distraught.”
While McIntosh said he did not have a list of examples ready, he said the payment was in line with other cases identified by WorkSafeNB and said that it was “on the lower end of range, but appropriate.” He said the guilty plea averted a trial, which could have featured as many as 12 witnesses.
“Kelly Cove wasn’t cutting any corners,” McIntosh said, saying they were “relying on a time-tested method of getting on and off boats” and had been accommodating Dobbin’s travel plans.
He noted the wharf ladders are owned by the wharf and federally regulated.
Brunswick News has made a request for comment to the Port of Bayside and is awaiting a response.
Kelly Cove’s lawyer Catherine Lahey told the court that she was “satisfied it was a fair sentence” and said two of the company’s top officials were present in court, Catherine McBride, the chief human resources officer, and Chalena Biggar, the director of health and safety. They declined to address the court.
“The company is taking it seriously, it’s taken steps to ensure that an incident like this will not occur again,” Lahey told the court, adding there “was no inappropriate shortcut that occurred here, this is an unusual event, but the company is taking responsibility.”
Joanie Dobbin, Dobbin’s mother, told Brunswick News by phone that the family was “very disappointed in a couple of things,” because they were ready to attend trial to testify, first in July and then again in February, before she received word Jan. 29 that the plea was changing
She said the direct cause of her son’s death was not the fall, but a complication of surgery related to anaesthetic, which she said was “quite traumatic for our family,” and that they “were blessed” to have the extra time with him before his death. But Dobbin, who had herself travelled the world as a marine cook, said the circumstances were “unnecessary.”
“My message is to any company in that industry … is that in one split second a life can change, a life can be lost,” she said. “Safety is an employer’s responsibility. Zach died unnecessarily because of a fall from work, I know he didn’t die at work, but he wouldn’t have been in that surgery if he didn’t have that fall.”
Dobbin said her son had been struggling on the boat because he had no experience with the deckhand portion of the job.
A report on the WorkSafeNB investigation included emails from supervisors and texts indicating that Dobbin had been having trouble with the ladders and duties as a deckhand. The report indicated that he was visibly struggling during the climb, and includes a photo taken while he was climbing the ladder before his death.
The report also indicated there was no consideration given to tides when planning crew change, noting that Dobbin’s flight was for 8 p.m. and that “the employer could have waited several more hours to allow the tide to rise.”
“Had they waited until 2:32 p.m., the tide would have been high and anyone could have just walked from the deck of the boat to the top of the wharf,” Joanie Dobbin said.
The WorkSafeNB investigation concluded that the company “relies solely” on the ladders for its large vessel fleet, and that the ladders posed a “notable risk” at low tide, adding that the company did not provide fall protection at times when the climb could be as much as six to nine metres.
“Nobody should have to scale up the side of a wharf on those straight ladders, nobody. It’s hard for people who are in really good shape, let alone if you’re not in great shape or inexperienced,” Joanie Dobbin said, adding the change to floating docks was a positive one.
Zachary Dobbin was “young at heart” and a father whose child was 18 months old when he died, Joanie Dobbin said. He was her “best friend,” she said, and was a “moody young adult” and who could be tough on the outside and soft on the inside.
“He was fun when he wanted to be fun, but he was very serious,” she said, saying he was a gamer, liked riding quads and loved cooking. “He had the biggest, deepest voice and the best laugh.”
In a statement Friday following the sentencing, spokesperson Claire Ryan said the company “considers the health and safety of its employees as its priority, and Mr. Dobbin was a respected and admired colleague.”
Ryan said the company “was fully cooperative throughout the investigation into the incident and has implemented more robust measures to ensure safer practices in and around wharf and vessel ladders,” adding they were “supportive” of the penalty going to a training program.
WorkSafeNB spokesperson Lynn Meahan-Carson said they “do trust the judicial system” and declined to comment on the plea or the sentence.
“WorkSafeNB believes every workplace injury is preventable and every fatality is a tragedy, as was the death of Mr. Dobbin,” Carson wrote in an email Friday.
